From Destiny to Diablo, Here’s Every PlayStation 4 Game So Far

Or rather, let us be more specific: It was not lacking in work-in-progress technical demonstrations, several of which will probably be released as PlayStation 4 games and several of which may descend into the bowels of development hell, maybe forever. We know this because an alarming number of the "games" shown off the last time Sony released a console never came out.

So, healthy dose of skepticism noted and tiny grain of salt ingested, here are the games Sony and third-party development partners showed off last night for the PlayStation 4 console, which Sony says it will release this holiday season.

Above:

Knack

Rather than leading with a lengthy demo of a first-person shooter, Sony chose this cute, charming platform game as its first taste of PS4. Created by game design veteran Mark Cerny (Marble Madness, among many others) in conjunction with Sony's Japan studio, Knack revolves around a tiny robot that can take on a variety of decidedly non-tiny forms to kick some ass. Since Cerny is also the lead system architect of PS4, one assumes he knows a little something about how to push the console.

Killzone: Shadow Fall

Having gotten Knack out of the way, Sony then featured a lengthy demo of a first-person shooter. Having named the console PlayStation 4 and the controller Dual Shock 4, Sony at least had the good sense to not call this Killzone 4. Killzone: Shadow Fall's message was that PlayStation 4 will have ever-so-slightly better graphics that pretty up the same old gameplay. I'm not sure this was the takeaway Sony wanted us to have, but there it was.

Infamous: Second Son

Sony's Infamous, its open-world superhero adventure that was kind of like PlayStation 3's answer to Crackdown, was some really good stuff. So of course it's back for PS4. No real information about how it'll play, just a trailer of some storyline sequences.

DriveClub

At least Sony didn't show another vaporware Gran Turismo game! In a surprise twist, the maker of the motorbike racer Motorstorm was here to show off the hyper-realistic driving game DriveClub. A developer took the stage to announce that the "suede and carpet have a fiber direction map, causing them to reflect light differently when they’ve been brushed or touched." Can we try the game? No, of course not. Just look at the seat cushions please.

The Witness

Thank goodness for Jonathan Blow, indie game designer and creator of Braid, who took the stage to poke fun at all the explosions that we'd seen so far and promise us that he's creating something far less bombastic. The Witness, his next game, will be console-exclusive to PlayStation 3 at launch. This of course means that it'll appear on other platforms, like PC, at launch, and might appear on other consoles down the line. It's about as exclusive as things get, these days. This puzzle game, if it's anything like Braid, will probably make you pull your hair out.

Deep Down

Third parties now took the stage, led by Capcom. Deep Down (working title) looks to be a pseudo-sequel to the dragon-fighting action RPG Dragon's Dogma for PlayStation 3. The demo was apparently being rendered in real-time on a PS4, but that doesn't mean it's an actual game scenario. Be skeptical! Capcom said this will use an all-new PS4 game engine it calls Panta Rhei.

Unreal Engine "Elemental" Demo

Some publishers just showed tech demos that were clearly marked as not-games. Epic Games had already showed this demo of Unreal Engine 4, called "Elemental," at E3 last year. But this time, it showed it running on PlayStation 4 hardware. Square Enix took the stage next, again to show an old demo from E3 called "Agni's Philosophy." Then it said it was making a Final Fantasy game for PS4, and promised to reveal it at this year's E3. (One would hope that Square Enix actually releases its PlayStation 3 games first.)

Watch Dogs

Ubisoft's new franchise Watch Dogs had one of the more robust, this-looks-like-an-actual-game demos of the event. The vibe from this open-world city action game was like Assassin's Creed in the future.

Diablo III

In one of the more surprising appearances of the night, Blizzard took the stage to announce that its PC hit Diablo III was on the way for both PlayStation 3 and PlayStation 4. Later, it revealed a handful of screenshots, like the one above -- just for PS3, not PS4. Sorry if I made you temporarily scared that that was a PS4 screen.

Destiny

In one of the least surprising appearances of the night, Activision CEO Eric Hirshberg said that Destiny, the recently announced new shooter from Halo creator Bungie, would appear on PlayStation 4 at launch. It's also slated to arrive on Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, and doesn't have a launch date yet.